Everyone has that one overprotective friend. And Krithika had Preeti.
"It's a bad idea" screamed Preeti.
"Huh? Why?" Krithika asked innocently.
"Why are you going out with a stranger?"
"Well, there are two reasons. One - he is not a stranger. Two - we are not 'going out'."
"Whatever"
"No, seriously. We follow each other on Twitter"
"So, you haven't met him before?"
"We have chatted with each other many times and with common friends too"
"But how do you know he is not some freak?"
"Hmm. He has 1274 followers. Not all of them can be wrong, no?"
"But, how do you know he is a good guy? Do you know anyone who knows him personally?"
"Well, we have a lot of common followers"
"Only Twitter based common friends, right?"
"Yes"
"See what I mean? This could be a trap"
"Oh please. Calm down Preeti"
"All I'm saying is this - Never ever go out alone with strangers"
"Ok MO....M" Krithika replied stressing unnecessarily higher on the second word.
"I don't deserve that. My mistake for caring. Do what you want." Preeti slammed the door as she walked out.
Krithika finished some final makeup touches and left. In the auto, her mobile beeped. It was Preeti - "Just be careful" it read. Out went a quick reply - "Don't worry, I'll be Okay. And I'm sorry"
The auto dropped her off at the empty football stadium. "Who meets at a stadium when there is no match scheduled?" she thought to herself and walked in.
She sat at one of the seats, looked around at the vast emptiness and waited. She got her phone out and checked his follower count again. She read out "One thousand two hundred seventy four" aloud.
She checked her own follower count next. She saw 1179 and sighed loudly. She mentally noted that she should go home and find out the two people who had unfollowed her since morning.
She heard him from behind her. "Hey. Are you @treetopgirl?"
"Yeah. You must be @vishn_u". She was wondering how she didn't hear him coming.
"Yes. My friends call me Vishnu"
"I'm Krithika. Hope you didn't think my name is treetopgirl"
They both laughed nervously at that non-joke and fell silent.
She interrupted the awkward silence with "How many followers do you have?"
"1000 something I think. I forgot. Why do you ask?"
"Nothing specific. Just curious, that's all"
Then, the topics shifted from common followers to hashtag meanings and then to twitter celebs and finally to Twitter gossip. After an hour of meaningless babble, relaxation set in.
As they got comfortable with each other, the alertness was gone and the vulnerability was evident. The gun came out swiftly and was pressed against the forehead. It was too late to react - the shot went off and the body collapsed on the ground.
The killer got up satisfied. "Nobody. NOOOOBODY can have more followers than me", she mumbled and walked away into the night.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Scott Adams' post on Men's rights
This morning's post on Scott Adams' (Dilbert's blog) has been replaced with:
I deleted today's post. My regular readers have the capacity to deal with this sort of topic but it gained a bit too much attention from outside my normal reading circle.
Knowledge is a dangerous thing.
==================================================================
Here is the original article:
The topic my readers most want me to address is something called men's rights. (See previous post.) This is a surprisingly good topic. It's dangerous. It's relevant. It isn't overdone. And apparently you care.
Let's start with the laundry list.
According to my readers, examples of unfair treatment of men include many elements of the legal system, the military draft in some cases, the lower life expectancies of men, the higher suicide rates for men, circumcision, and the growing number of government agencies that are primarily for women.
You might add to this list the entire area of manners. We take for granted that men should hold doors for women, and women should be served first in restaurants. Can you even imagine that situation in reverse?
Generally speaking, society discourages male behavior whereas female behavior is celebrated. Exceptions are the fields of sports, humor, and war. Men are allowed to do what they want in those areas.
Add to our list of inequities the fact that women have overtaken men in college attendance. If the situation were reversed it would be considered a national emergency.
How about the higher rates for car insurance that young men pay compared to young women? Statistics support this inequity, but I don't think anyone believes the situation would be legal if women were charged more for car insurance, no matter what the statistics said.
Women will counter with their own list of wrongs, starting with the well-known statistic that women earn only 80 cents on the dollar, on average, compared to what men earn for the same jobs. My readers will argue that if any two groups of people act differently, on average, one group is likely to get better results. On average, men negotiate pay differently and approach risk differently than women.
Women will point out that few females are in top management jobs. Men will argue that if you ask a sample group of young men and young women if they would be willing to take the personal sacrifices needed to someday achieve such power, men are far more likely to say yes. In my personal non-scientific polling, men are about ten times more likely than women to trade family time for the highest level of career success.
Now I would like to speak directly to my male readers who feel unjustly treated by the widespread suppression of men's rights:
Get over it, you bunch of pussies.
The reality is that women are treated differently by society for exactly the same reason that children and the mentally handicapped are treated differently. It's just easier this way for everyone. You don't argue with a four-year old about why he shouldn't eat candy for dinner. You don't punch a mentally handicapped guy even if he punches you first. And you don't argue when a women tells you she's only making 80 cents to your dollar. It's the path of least resistance. You save your energy for more important battles.
How many times do we men suppress our natural instincts for sex and aggression just to get something better in the long run? It's called a strategy. Sometimes you sacrifice a pawn to nail the queen. If you're still crying about your pawn when you're having your way with the queen, there's something wrong with you and it isn't men's rights.
Fairness is an illusion. It's unobtainable in the real world. I'm happy that I can open jars with my bare hands. I like being able to lift heavy objects. And I don't mind that women get served first in restaurants because I don't like staring at food that I can't yet eat.
If you're feeling unfairly treated because women outlive men, try visiting an Assisted Living facility and see how delighted the old ladies are about the extra ten years of pushing the walker around. It makes dying look like a bargain.
I don't like the fact that the legal system treats men more harshly than women. But part of being male is the automatic feeling of team. If someone on the team screws up, we all take the hit. Don't kid yourself that men haven't earned some harsh treatment from the legal system. On the plus side, if I'm trapped in a burning car someday, a man will be the one pulling me out. That's the team I want to be on.
I realize I might take some heat for lumping women, children and the mentally handicapped in the same group. So I want to be perfectly clear. I'm not saying women are similar to either group. I'm saying that a man's best strategy for dealing with each group is disturbingly similar. If he's smart, he takes the path of least resistance most of the time, which involves considering the emotional realities of other people. A man only digs in for a good fight on the few issues that matter to him, and for which he has some chance of winning. This is a strategy that men are uniquely suited for because, on average, we genuinely don't care about 90% of what is happening around us.
I just did a little test to see if I knew what pajama bottoms I was wearing without looking. I failed.
I deleted today's post. My regular readers have the capacity to deal with this sort of topic but it gained a bit too much attention from outside my normal reading circle.
Knowledge is a dangerous thing.
==================================================================
Here is the original article:
The topic my readers most want me to address is something called men's rights. (See previous post.) This is a surprisingly good topic. It's dangerous. It's relevant. It isn't overdone. And apparently you care.
Let's start with the laundry list.
According to my readers, examples of unfair treatment of men include many elements of the legal system, the military draft in some cases, the lower life expectancies of men, the higher suicide rates for men, circumcision, and the growing number of government agencies that are primarily for women.
You might add to this list the entire area of manners. We take for granted that men should hold doors for women, and women should be served first in restaurants. Can you even imagine that situation in reverse?
Generally speaking, society discourages male behavior whereas female behavior is celebrated. Exceptions are the fields of sports, humor, and war. Men are allowed to do what they want in those areas.
Add to our list of inequities the fact that women have overtaken men in college attendance. If the situation were reversed it would be considered a national emergency.
How about the higher rates for car insurance that young men pay compared to young women? Statistics support this inequity, but I don't think anyone believes the situation would be legal if women were charged more for car insurance, no matter what the statistics said.
Women will counter with their own list of wrongs, starting with the well-known statistic that women earn only 80 cents on the dollar, on average, compared to what men earn for the same jobs. My readers will argue that if any two groups of people act differently, on average, one group is likely to get better results. On average, men negotiate pay differently and approach risk differently than women.
Women will point out that few females are in top management jobs. Men will argue that if you ask a sample group of young men and young women if they would be willing to take the personal sacrifices needed to someday achieve such power, men are far more likely to say yes. In my personal non-scientific polling, men are about ten times more likely than women to trade family time for the highest level of career success.
Now I would like to speak directly to my male readers who feel unjustly treated by the widespread suppression of men's rights:
Get over it, you bunch of pussies.
The reality is that women are treated differently by society for exactly the same reason that children and the mentally handicapped are treated differently. It's just easier this way for everyone. You don't argue with a four-year old about why he shouldn't eat candy for dinner. You don't punch a mentally handicapped guy even if he punches you first. And you don't argue when a women tells you she's only making 80 cents to your dollar. It's the path of least resistance. You save your energy for more important battles.
How many times do we men suppress our natural instincts for sex and aggression just to get something better in the long run? It's called a strategy. Sometimes you sacrifice a pawn to nail the queen. If you're still crying about your pawn when you're having your way with the queen, there's something wrong with you and it isn't men's rights.
Fairness is an illusion. It's unobtainable in the real world. I'm happy that I can open jars with my bare hands. I like being able to lift heavy objects. And I don't mind that women get served first in restaurants because I don't like staring at food that I can't yet eat.
If you're feeling unfairly treated because women outlive men, try visiting an Assisted Living facility and see how delighted the old ladies are about the extra ten years of pushing the walker around. It makes dying look like a bargain.
I don't like the fact that the legal system treats men more harshly than women. But part of being male is the automatic feeling of team. If someone on the team screws up, we all take the hit. Don't kid yourself that men haven't earned some harsh treatment from the legal system. On the plus side, if I'm trapped in a burning car someday, a man will be the one pulling me out. That's the team I want to be on.
I realize I might take some heat for lumping women, children and the mentally handicapped in the same group. So I want to be perfectly clear. I'm not saying women are similar to either group. I'm saying that a man's best strategy for dealing with each group is disturbingly similar. If he's smart, he takes the path of least resistance most of the time, which involves considering the emotional realities of other people. A man only digs in for a good fight on the few issues that matter to him, and for which he has some chance of winning. This is a strategy that men are uniquely suited for because, on average, we genuinely don't care about 90% of what is happening around us.
I just did a little test to see if I knew what pajama bottoms I was wearing without looking. I failed.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Temple footwear
Only half her attention was with God that day in the temple. The other half was on the new pair of black footwear she had left outside. Feeling guilty about her lack of full devotion, she walked out quickly after prayers.
As expected, the footwear was gone and she was not a bit surprised. She took a deep breath and sighed loudly. After glancing around quickly, she slipped into another brown pair that looked her size and walked home.
The brown one's owner walked by a few minutes later. "May the person who took my footwear burn in hell" she muttered as she stepped into someone else's blue shoes.
"May the person who took my footwear bleed slowly to death" the third woman muttered and slipped into a pair of red slippers.
"Bloody thief. May worms crawl into the clothes of the one who took my shoes" she said and walked away with an ugly pair of sneakers.
The abuses kept getting worse with each of the next seven women who all muttered censor-worthy abuses and walked away with some other pair that fitted them. References to parents, sisters, rape, adultery and widowhood were all made in these abuses.
The two dogs watching seemed to enjoy this evening's show. The bigger dog said proudly "See, I told you humans will abuse each other without knowing the full details, even in a place of worship" as he dragged back the new black footwear to its original place.
As expected, the footwear was gone and she was not a bit surprised. She took a deep breath and sighed loudly. After glancing around quickly, she slipped into another brown pair that looked her size and walked home.
The brown one's owner walked by a few minutes later. "May the person who took my footwear burn in hell" she muttered as she stepped into someone else's blue shoes.
"May the person who took my footwear bleed slowly to death" the third woman muttered and slipped into a pair of red slippers.
"Bloody thief. May worms crawl into the clothes of the one who took my shoes" she said and walked away with an ugly pair of sneakers.
The abuses kept getting worse with each of the next seven women who all muttered censor-worthy abuses and walked away with some other pair that fitted them. References to parents, sisters, rape, adultery and widowhood were all made in these abuses.
The two dogs watching seemed to enjoy this evening's show. The bigger dog said proudly "See, I told you humans will abuse each other without knowing the full details, even in a place of worship" as he dragged back the new black footwear to its original place.
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